Stoic, The Scholar

by **Stoic** January 15th 2019, 5:49 pm

Stoic

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"Existence is terrible. It's full of suffering, evil, and despair. That has always been true, and it will probably remain true.... But even still, despite that, I choose to be better—I choose to stand in defiance."

Basic Biography

Real Name: Lukas Christensen
Vigilante Name: Stoic
Titles: Kid Caesar, The Scholar
Occupation: Information Security Analyst, Vigilante, Red Hat Hacker
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Race: Human (White)
Hair: Dirty Blonde
Eyes: Pale Grey
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 145 pounds
Blood type: O+

The Looks

Pic:

Pic:

Pic:

Gear:

Gear:

The Legacy

Personality: "To articulate the totality of the Self is no easy feat, and it might even be impossible, but I'll do my best to tell you as much about me as I can put into words, while still remaining brief.

"I'm a complicated person. On the surface, I'm reserved, detached, and calm—some have even called me cold. I've wondered for many years why I'm this way, but haven't come to any definitive answers beyond attributing it to temperment. It seems I'm always off in my head, and if you don't know me it'd be reasonable to assume I don't care about anyone or anything. It feels like most of the time I'm just going through the motions—like I'm not even present, but in my own world. In short, I'm difficult to crack open.

"The disconnected level of my personality all but disappears once you get to know me, though. Once you break through, I'm one of the most curious, fiery, and passionate people you'll ever meet. Maybe it's because I hold it all inside most of the time, but regardless, I'm a very intense and zealous person, and that shows most after I've gotten comfortable with you.

"Another effect of bottling up my feelings is my temper. It's not your everyday hotheadedness either. When I say I see red, I mean it. In bursts of rage, I've broke things, said terrible things to people I care about, and gone a bit too far with my dishing out of justice more than a few times. It's an uncontrollable, terrifying state, akin to one of my panic attacks, but laser focused and forged in fire.

"Since I mentioned my attacks, I guess I should get into my mental health. I'm a bit fucked up, in short. I'm always fighting off overwhelming anxiety, worry, and obsession. Sometimes I don't even know what triggers it, but at any point in time I can become crippled by my own mind playing tricks on itself. I've been depressed most of my life, and suicidal more than a few times. All this lead to a dependency on alcohol and a bleak outlook on life that still creeps up every now and then, but..... Things are getting better.

"I have a new outlook on life. Well, I guess it's not new. I've used it before to great effect, but you have to remember to maintain it, or it fades away. You fall back into your old habits, despair, and vices if you don't constantly check yourself, but I seem to have a handle on it this time.

"I'm no longer blaming the world, or anyone else for that matter, for my problems. I'm no longer constantly worrying about things I can't control. I've let them go, because I finally realized they're not even there—that there's nothing to hold onto. I'm not the dictator of my life anymore, but a litigator. I'm delegating authority instead of trying to take the whole weight of the world onto my shoulders. I'm accepting reality—realizing that I'm only human, and that I don't have to drive myself into depression and sin worrying about the malevolence in the world that I can't change. The truth is, you can't get rid of the evil of humans by tyrannically forcing them to your will—you just end up causing more misery, corrupting yourself in the process. All you can do is be an example. All you can do is put the best, most virtuous version of yourself forward into the world, and encourage others to do the same. That's some good you can do that doesn't require means that need justification.

"If you didn't gather from the rant above, I like my philosophy. I read a lot, think about abstract concepts probably more than I should, and am always in search of higher meaning in life. I want to figure out what the best way to orient yourself in the world is, and to live up to that ideal as much as I can. I don't know how well I'm doing so far, but I'm honest to the point of brutality, loyal to the end, strong willed, and ultimately have a good heart, I think. I'm here to illuminate my little part of the world, offering what I have learned and protecting the remarkable good I have witnessed in individuals during my time on this Earth.

"I'm going to do what's right, even in the face of unbearable hardship. It's not my responsibility to fix the world, no, but I'm going to be part of the cure, not the disease—I promise."

History: "We've had a long and perilous journey getting here, haven't we?

"This isn't a biography. I'm not going to sit here and give you my entire life story, with all it's characters, struggles, and intricacies. At best it would be boring, and at worst it'd be my own little personal pity party. The point is, I can sum it up with this and save some time: I've had a hard life. I don't want anyone's sympathy for that, and I certainly don't want anyone's help, but It is crucial that I tell you that if you are to understand exactly who I am. I know that lots of people have had their own difficult existence, and I'm not here to compare my troubles to theirs. I'm just laying it out there: Fun fact, my entire life up until a few years ago sucked ass.

"I was pulled around the country my whole childhood, never setting in roots, never going to school, and never doing much of anything besides worry. I was homeless more than a few times, and on the brink of suicide just as many. I had stolen to survive, slept against a building in the freezing cold, and developed plenty of mental issues that went untreated in my time as a boy. I realize now my parents had gotten themselves into something they didn't really understand. They were always loving, but, they couldn't provide for us like others could. They always made stupid mistakes, and upended my hope of a normal life at every turn. All I could do was hide in my books, and scheme about what I would be when I finally made it out of the whirlwind of despair.

"I eventually did escape, though it didn't really have anything to do with my location. I simply became old enough to act on my own. I started to build a life for myself—a future worthy of my lofty ambitions. I worked like a mule, went to college, and achieved whatever I set my mind to. I was, and still am, rather good at life. But, as can be expected, the damage was done.

"Even as I took on the world, something was missing. I was just going through the motions, I realized. I was drifting through life, competent, but unsure of what I wanted. No wind is favorable when you don't know what port you're sailing to, so it didn't matter if I was progressing or not. I still felt worry as if nothing had changed. No amount of money in my pocket, respect from colleagues, or rank at work satiated me. I still felt overwhelming anxiety—obsession. I needed to see it all laid out in an orderly fashion before me. I wanted my life all wrapped up in a pretty little package. I was being a dictator, trying to force everything to my whim, and the weight was killing me.

"Eventually, I broke. It was too much. With a few failures—that is, a few things not going according to my perfect little plan—I fell into a deep despair. I burnt out. I had strong armed my life so much that I didn't know what to do when faced with the fact something out of my control was destroying my hopes and dreams. Sure, I had gone through bumps in the road before, but this was shattering. It was as if I could never be fulfilled if everything wasn't perfect—lined up, clean, and ordered, just how I liked it. When confronted with chaos, I lost my heart, because I didn't know how to live without having complete control. I didn't know how to delegate authority, or trust in anything but my own means. It was a reaction to never knowing what my life would be the next day: I would try to tyrannically control all the variables, even when they were clearly beyond my means, and become riddled with anxiety when an outcome was not certain enough. I relied solely on my own ability to affect reality, as I had always had to do, and as a consequence obsessed over every detail, killing myself as I tried to play God.

"One can only do that for so long. When I realized it was impossible, I fell apart. I reasoned that If i couldn't control everything in my life and choose my fate, then it was a hopeless existence. I drank, drank, and drank. I was still going through life and taking care of myself, but I was all but crushed on the inside. I was constantly depressed. There was the nagging voice in the back of my head, telling me I was a failure, a screw up, and a loser, but what could I do? I had tried to take on the world, and I found it was too much for me to control. All I could hope for was some smaller thing I could do to give my life meaning—some motive. It eventually came.

"After a long talk with a couple of my friends over Taco Bell, I came up with the great idea to be a vigilante. When I say great, I mean completely batshit, but I was running out of options in the purpose department. When we walked away from that night, I was set on doing something: If i couldn't be Caesar and change the world, I would cleanse it of filth. I'd forge myself into a weapon, and destroy evil without mercy. The evil that kept me down, and the evil that kept so many others down.

"To put it bluntly, I was being a resentful little prick.

"I called myself Drifter, rather fittingly, stylizing myself as the new law in town. I was still playing God, just in a much more severe way. I killed people. I was deciding who deserved to pay the ultimate price. I was trying to fix the world by getting rid of all those that didn't fit MY vision of an ideal, moral, and just society. Just like the totalitarian regimes I had studied, and loathed, I was deciding who was worthy of life. If only I had known the depths fighting monsters can bring you. If only I had seen that evil cannot be fought with more evil. It's like trying to extinguish flames with gasoline—you just end up making things worse. You lose your soul, and become the very enemy you sought to destroy.

"I was a dictator. A murderer. I was Lucius Alba, disregarding the lives of individuals as expendable for some lofty, impossible utopia. It can be seen in history that anyone who has tried that leaves a trail of blood in a supposedly righteous fury, only to realize it's done nothing to purge the world of evil. Because the truth is, you can't stomp out darkness completely. It will always be there no matter what, and can only be mitigated by brightening the light, not by sacrificing people, however corrupt you may deem them, at the alter of some greater good.

"So, we get to where I am now. I've let go of trying to fix the world through blood, or at all for that matter. Instead, I'm just doing what I can to make things better. I'm trying to be an example of virtue—to fight the evil that lurks in the world by being better than it, even though I'll probably fail. I'm trying to show as many people as I can that there are ways to reduce the inherent suffering of life that don't produce suffering themselves, and that we don't have to kill each other in a valueless massacre of cynical immorality and merciless vengeance, but instead can rise above to create our own ideals and meaning. I'm trying to be good, and to encourage others to follow suit. I'm still a warrior, but my intention is to be one of fairness, honor, and integrity, in spite of the terrible nature of the world.

"Yeah yeah, it's not the pragmatic thing to do. I still agree with all you nihilists that, as it stands, it's all terrible and meaningless and painful. But, unlike you defeatists types, I say we might as well strive to make it a bit better. I say we transcend the need for objectively defined meaning, by God or otherwise, and make living a bit more bearable ourselves. I'm not doing this whole 'Good Guy' thing because I think the world deserves it, or because I think there is some bigger picture we ought to fulfill; I'm doing it because I think it's the right thing to do.

"I'm down a hand, but I gained something in exchange. I'm ready to be what I need to be. So long as I draw breath, I won't ever again be like the corruption I face. I'm Stoic, and I still have hope that, despite our nature, we can live in accordance with virtue, reason, and truth—with the Logos."

The Powers and Weaknesses

Powers

Nope, Stoic is human, no powers.

Weaknesses

Just a Human: Stoic is just a human, and a skinny one at that.

The Girl: Being his significant other, Skyler Snowden, aka Doctor Karma, can be used against Stoic for the purposes of black mail, or just to hurt him.... He also has a soft spot for her, being one of few people that can break through his stubbornness.

Humanity and Charlatan: Humanity and Charlatan are two people that Stoic would do practically anything for, and not only that, but their judgement and input has a severe impact on what he does. It doesn't take a genius to see how this could be used against him.

OCD: Stoic has OCD, or did if you ask him. He says it has mostly vanished since childhood, and that's true, but at times it resurfaces and can cause the random impulse to do something several times or to carry out a specific action. If he doesn't, he freaks out and his mind will focus on doing that action instead of anything else that may be more important.

Alcohol: Stoic likes to drink. Like, a lot. He's curbed the habit, but a rocky enough day can cause him to start up again, essentially making him useless for the rest of the thread, or at least greatly impaired.

Insomnia: Stoic sometimes doesn't sleep for days, making him groggy and generally less effective (Every other thread he will be effected by this to some degree).

Long Fuse, Big Bomb: Stoic can deal with practically any situation without getting angry, however, this only lasts so long. Eventually it will pile up to the point where he goes off the handle, lashes out, throws things, loses focus, ect.

Honesty/Bluntness: Stoic is brutally honest, and has trouble even stretching the truth. He feels the consequences of keeping secrets outweigh the consequences of just telling the truth, and so tends to be pretty loose lipped. He doesn't pull his punches for the sake of politeness, either. The truth is the truth, and to Stoic, the greater the dose the better. It's not hard to see why this would get him into trouble. He's a terrible liar, and can screw up social situations simply because he's an open book and has no filter.

RP Mechanics

Precognitive Dreaming: During his dreams, Stoic can at times see things that have yet to happen. Most of the time he forgets them by the time he wakes up, only remembering when the event is about to happen like it's Deja Vu. This is mostly there for plot purposes and it is permission based, however once per thread Stoic can react to something as if he knew it was coming. This is mostly for a less plot bs way to keep the squishy human from dying too early, and is therefore more of an RP mechanic.

Details/Drawbacks:

The Red Hat: Stoic's primary method of vigilante justice is through the use of technology. Being a Cyber Security expert, and a Grey Hat Hacker before that, Stoic is a competent social engineer and technologist. He constantly comes up with new ways to screw with people using computers, and has done much more damage in the cyberworld than he ever could in hand to hand combat. Basically, he's skilled enough to use simple homemade devices and common consumer electronics to wreck havoc given enough preparation.

Peak Human Aim: Has a pretty impressive aim, for a human.

The Scholar: Stoic is a very academic person, having been exceptionally curious and driven intellectually all his life. He's studied hundreds—if not thousands of books, taking a particular interest in psychology, history, political theory, and philosophy. He's extremely well read, and passionate about learning, teaching, and discussing ideas. To put it plainly—he's a huge nerd, and has a vast well of knowledge on a variety of topics. No, he's not a super genius, but he knows things, and can have a reasonably informed discussion about practically anything. In fact, his tendency to jump into rants about seemingly random and inane things can get quite annoying, and tends to cause people to call him a 'Know it All' or 'Smart Ass' quite often.

Unstoppable Will: Stoic's will is like few others. He just doesn't seem to quit. Even in the face of unbeatable odds, his resolve does not burn out. His own ability to stand against malevolence gives him faith in the strength that people, including himself, have inside them, creating a feedback loop of unshakable willpower. Though not to a superhuman extent, Luke's character and sense of self is powerful enough to repel lesser users of telepathy and possession abilities (IC reason why using such permission based powers on him is impractical.)

Freerunner: Stoic is an exceptional freerunner, and has good speed and endurance to boot. Catching him is very difficult for most people below peak human, and can even be complicated for superhumans with how crafty he is with his movement.

Mixed Martial Artist: Stoic has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, experience with Muay Ti kickboxing, and has recently incorporated Systema, a style developed by Russian Special Forces as an all-encompassing, practical art focused on a stiff stance, using your opponent's momentum against them, and quick, critical blows.

Survival Priority: Stoic has a rather unique way of going about an operation. He has to have a plan before doing anything offensive, and even then, the priority is survival. Any other goal of the mission is treated as a secondary objective. This prevents him from doing anything that would compromise his safety just to take out a target. The goal is to get away, and if he succeeds in his other objectives, great, and if not, it's better to live to fight another day instead of trying to improvise an already failed plan. As Stoic says: "If your plan fails, go home and make a new one."

Items

Cybernetic Hand: Stoic has a fully functional cybernetic hand. It is made of a very strong grade five titanium alloy, and grants Stoic increased forearm strength due to the number of mechanisms that needed to be replaced after his injury. It isn't anything too crazy, but he can lift a good five hundred pounds over his head and punch with around triple the force a peak human athlete could with it. Other then being a mechanically enforced, blunt striking object, it has a number of other features, which are as follows:

Micro Computer: A wrist computer built into Stoic's cybernetic. It essentially functions as a normal computer, but is compact and has the added bonus of providing a hacker's tool kit. Stoic can do anything that a penetration tester can do on a powerful PC with this micro comp. From sniffing networks and grabbing packets of data, to plugging it straight into a machine and brute forcing the password. It's an invaluable tool in the field.

EMP: A powerful military grade EMP generator, capable of shutting down and interfering with even the most highly advanced electronic devices.

Electrification Stoic's hand can be electrified with up to five thousand volts, allowing him to cause much more damage with his strikes.

Weaknesses:

Appearance:

The Mask: Stoic's mask, despite appearances, is made of the same titanium alloy as his armor plating. It can by no means shrug off bullets like they are nothing, but it does prevent them from entering Stoic's skull up to a certain point, even if it does hurt like hell regardless. The mask also houses a voice changer and retractable lenses that are meant to shield from flashbangs and offer superior visibility in smoke/darkness.

Weakness:

Armor: Stoic wears titanium plates connected by strips of Kevlar mesh underneath his costume. This body armor is capable of taking hits from small arms with minimal difficulty, and at least preventing death from higher grade weapons such as sniper rifles.

Weakness:

Nightshade (Relic): A beautiful antique knife with rose markings acquired in the Alert [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] It is made of a very durable metal that retains an edge strong enough to cut through steel with ease. The metal also seems to be toxic to the blood, causing blurred vision, muscle spasms, slowed movements, nausea, and eventually unconsciousness in those cut with it. The toxin does not seem to be lethal, but it does seem to still be effective on metahumans. Because it is a deadly weapon, Stoic generally only uses it on those he knows can take the cuts in order to slow them down with the toxin.

Weakness:

Nomos: A gun made in the image of a Magnum, but instead of bullets it fires high velocity bolts of electrical energy. All that is required to keep it running is to reload the cartridge, which is basically a battery, every hundred or so shots. The power of the bolts can be turned up to grenade level and turned all the way down to taser level, which is what it is normally set at. Stoic took this weapon off of the body of Agent Michael Daniels and had it modified by Nicolas Flamel.

Weakness:

Appearance:

Knockout Darts: Thrown darts that inject a sleeping agent into their target. One is enough to put a fully grown man to sleep.

Weakness:

Smoke Pellets: Pellets that produce thick grey smoke when thrown on the ground. Used for escape and to provide cover during combat.

Weakness:

Remote Charges: Used mostly for strategic purposes. These are Semtex charges capable of blowing up at least a medium sized room each. They are detonated via Stoic's micro computer.

Weakness:

Mundane Items: Stoic can get his hands on most mundane items including but not limited to basic chemicals/controlled substances, computer hardware, and urban weaponry, as well as some low grade military gear.

Weakness:

Secure Communicators: Using his technological expertise, Stoic created a set of secure communicators for all the Vigilantes. The server cannot be hacked in any practical amount of time due to multiple levels of encryption, and can hold massive amounts of data. Each communicator set is comprised of an ear piece and small phone-like touch pad, allowing access to the database along with a direct, 24/7 text or voice connection with all others who have a communicator and access codes to get into the server. If somehow the server were ever breached, it's contents, including all conversations, would be copied to a backup website somewhere on the dark-web, and after that it would be automatically scrubbed and shut down.

Weakness:

Physical Priority
Agility 1
Reaction 2
Endurance 3
Strength 4

by **Arcana** January 16th 2019, 12:52 pm

Approved until stated otherwise

Stoic, The Scholar

Stoic, The Scholar

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